The Federation of Karnataka Virginia Tobacco Growers’ Association has opposed the government’s proposed move to implement a larger pictorial warning on tobacco products.
The association questioned the need for increasing the size of the pictorial warning to 85 per cent of the packet. The centre has come under flak from various health groups and even the World Health Organisation recently urged the Union government to increase the warning size, in keeping with the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), of which India was a signatory.
However, tobacco cultivators argued that countries like the United States of America, Indonesia, and Argentina, had not signed the convention and the country’s policies and regulations should be specifically tailored to Indian conditions.
The association said the FCTC was framed by western countries where tobacco consumption was much higher than in India. The association stated that increasing the pictorial warnings would make it difficult to identify original cigarette packs from fake ones, and in turn would increase the sale of illegal cigarettes. “India is the fifth biggest market for illegal cigarettes, causing a loss of nearly Rs. 7,000 crore to the exchequer,” claimed the association.
